Auto Suggestions are available once you type at least 3 letters. Use up arrow (for mozilla firefox browser alt+up arrow) and down arrow (for mozilla firefox browser alt+down arrow) to review and enter to select.

Overview

One day in a small California barrio, a scary-looking stranger with an ugly scar on his face arrives. Silence falls on the streets. Normally raucous children stop playing, and their fearful mothers quickly beckon them inside. Everyone peeks out of windows and doors to watch the stranger walk down Main Street.

Later in the week, the stranger again appears in town. And a few days later, on a pleasant Sunday morning, the man shows his frightening face yet again. But this time, he's not alone. Cradled in the stranger's arms is a big, red rooster with a yellow ribbon tied around its neck. When the rooster sets off after a bug with the stranger hanging on to the ribbon "like a cowboy who had lassoed a wild bull," the townspeople are finally able to look past the long, ugly scar on the stranger's face.

Echoing the oral tradition common to so many Latinos, acclaimed author Victor Villaseñor shares with young readers one of his father's favorite stories. With vibrant illustrations by José Jara, this will soon become the favorite of many children aged 3 to 7.

Product Details

Editorial Reviews

"...with vibrant, stylized illustrations and swirling backgrounds of brilliant colors...The text offer[s] great opportunities for reading alone or dramatizing as a play....intensely colored, stylized art shows a natural world full of bright sunlight, richly shadowed crow feathers, and backgrounds with subtle layers of color..strength lies in its traditional origins, its striking illustrations, and the overall message that, occasionally, children can teach their parents a thing or two."

Booklist

Once again an animal plays a central role in Villaseor's story, but this time the other characters are human. When a stranger walks into the small town of Carlsbad, Calif., both children and adults primarily notice the scar that disfigures his face and refuse to interact or offer him the work he seeks. But when he shows up on Sunday after church, carrying his rooster with a bright ribbon around its neck, the ice is broken: The powerful bird, lunging after crickets, almost pulls the man off of his feet. When he finally manages to restrain the rooster, and while everyone is roaring with laughter, the children approach to pet the bird and the adults to introduce themselves. Villase-or's lesson against judging by appearances is apparent, but the heart of the story is the humor inherent in the rooster's greedy hunger. Jara's illustrations are detailed, featuring slightly exaggerated faces and the desert flora and simple adobe dwellings of southern California several decades in the past. (Picture book. 3-6)

“My name / is Water / but everyone / calls me Little Water.” In this
beautiful, poetic ode to the life-giving force of water, award-winning children’s book author Jorge Argueta describesin English, Spanish and Nahuatthe life cycle of water from ...

Gr 1-3-M-nica loves to help out in her grandparents' bakery. She sells the bread, talks
with the workers and the customers, and listens to her Abuela reminisce about how she and Abuelo started the shop. Just helping isn't enough for ...

One night, while Dalia slept safely wrapped in her mother's cool silken sheets, her hair
grew and grew. By the time the rooster crowed, her hair had “grown straight up to the sky, tall and thick as a Cuban royal ...

In this poem in English and Spanish, lizards, armadillos, and other creatures of the night
make merry beneath the desert moon, enjoying the strains of a mariachi band and gobbling lots of delicious food.

THE DESERT IS MY MOTHER/El desierto es mi madre is a beautiful poetic and artistic
rendition of the relationship between nature and Hispanics and Native American peoples. Rather than being an expanse empty of life and value, the desert is ...

It is World War II in East Los Angeles. “Little Mike” from “T-Flats” has a
dilemma. Manhood for him and his buddies means dressing “cool,” hanging around the corner or cruising the neighborhood, boozing it up and protecting their turf ...

In this Spanish-language edition of an award-winning book for young adults (Trino's Choice), seventh-grader Trino
Olivares likes video games a lot more than books. In fact, he doesn’t have much use for most “school types.” But when Rosca, an older ...

“Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, doggies, kitties and mousies: Welcome to the grand Tongue
Twister Tournament!” And so begins this championship in which the best tongue torturer will win the tongue twister trophy.The competitors include a variety of quirky ...